Friday, September 11, 2009

As you know from the information we provided publicly through the media yesterday, the Yale Police, with assistance from the FBI, the CT State Police, and the New Haven Police, are investigating the disappearance of Annie Le, a graduate student who is pursuing a PhD degree at Yale. Ms. Le’s last known location was in a Yale research facility at 10 Amistad Street on Tuesday morning.

We have appealed to the general public, as well as to the Yale community, for any information about Ms. Le’s whereabouts and are actively pursuing all leads. Ms. Le’s professors, colleagues, friends, family, and her fiancé are assisting in the investigation. The State Police have searched the area of Ms. Le’s last known appearance with their bloodhounds; law enforcement officers are continuing to undertake detailed searches of the surrounding area; and security officials are reviewing images from closed-circuit cameras in the area.

If you have any information that might assist in the efforts to find Ms. Le, please call the Yale Police at 203.432.4400 at any time.

Details: Annie Le is a Yale School of Medicine graduate student who has not been seen or heard from by family, co-workers and friends since 09/08/2009. Annie Le’s purse containing her cell phone, credit cards and money was left in her office on the morning of 09/08/2009. She was last seen at 10 Amistad Street wearing a knee length brown skirt, bright green short sleeved tee-shirt, brown shoes, and a brown necklace; photo #2 depicts Annie Le entering 10 Amistad the morning of her disappearance. She does not have access to a vehicle. There are no apparent medical issues.

Anyone with information on Annie Le’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Yale Police Department at (203) 432-4400.

Anyone with information that may be helpful is urged to call the FBI hotline:24 hour FBI tip-line at 1-877-503-1950

Sunday, September 6, 2009

For the last 2 years on September 2, the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco has received permission by SF Mayor Newsome to fly the Vietnamese flag in front of City Hall for one day to celebrate Vietnamese National Day. This is a courtesy given to the consulate as part of the sister city relationship

Just like last year, Mayor Newsome was there to congratualate the Consulate General for the happy occasion.

By the afternoon of the same day, the Vietnamese-American community responsed by asking the flag to be removed. And similarly to last year episosde, the city official politely received the petition. The flag then was removed around 5:00 PM the same day for it is protocol to display foreign nation flag in front of City Hall for one day only.

The event ended up with about 35 people. Kevin McCarthy did not show up. The MC (Carlos Bustamante of Santa Ana) did not mentioned anything about Kevin McCarthy and his absence. Tran spoke about his background and emphasized his 75% ID recognition in the Vietnamese-American community. The irony is that there were about 10 Vietnamese-Americans at the event. They did not get introduced by the MC or recognized by Van Tran. The controversial Diep Truong and Andy Quach did not dare to be there.

Hugh Nguyen, the county clerk OC Recorder candidate, paid $150 to attend the event, hoping to get Van Tran's endorsement. He did not get introduced or recognized by Van Tran or his people. Hugh Nguyen however tried his best to mingle and make sure that the VIPs know that he is a supporter of Van Tran.

Long Pham, the forever assemblyman candidate (this would be his 4th attempt to run for state assembly) who thought he would get Van Tran's endorsement by giving Van $1,000 was not there. Long Pham found out after giving the money that Van, instead of supporting him, decided to support a viable candidate - Allan Mansoor.

The whisper is loud in Little Saigon OC that Van Tran is being funded by big businessmen who has very close tie with the communist government.

The voters are now questioning Van Tran and his rhetorics. Van Tran major supporters from the community so far are - Frank Jao with his multimillion dollars investment in commercial real estate in Vietnam, David Duong and Victor Duong with their public meeting with the then Prime Minister Phan van Khai to sign business contracts, and of course there is Hoang Kieu who just recently received the highest recognition by the communist government for bringing businesses to Vietnam.

With a credential of strong anti-communist and unequivocal supporter of freedom and democracy, Van Tran has a lot of explaining to do in the next few months to the community why he is receiving money from Vietnamese-Chinese big businesmen who do not view the communist government as anything more than a business partner.